"Glee" Wheelchair episode shows why we fight on...

I had never seen the show "Glee", but after seeing a tweet from Glenda about the subject matter, I decided to watch.

The big controversy is why disabled actors aren't used for disabled role. It does bother me, considering there are probably many disabled actors who could us the employment:

"Glee" Wheelchair Episode Upsets Disabled: "For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role."

The line of the show for me was when the the coach of the Glee club tries to encourage the team to raise money needed to rent a bus that would accommodate Artie's wheelchair. The team does not see the need at first. His dad can take him...he takes him everywhere. The team leaves the room and the coach apologizes to Artie for their reaction.

Artie's response is priceless. It summarizes disability awareness, or lack thereof:

"It's okay...they just don't understand."

If you are disabled, you know what I mean. Acceptance of status quo is how we survive. If we fought every injustice and every barrier that we run into, we would have no strength or sanity left.

We pick our battles. Backed into a corner of despair, sometimes we fight. It kills us inside to rock the boat, to not be the smiling inspiration that people admire us for.

We lose many of these battles. The barrier or injustice is seen as minimal, or too expensive, by the people who have the power to fix it.

Some battles we "win"...but really, everybody loses. A fix is made, but the experience is killed for everyone. A meeting is moved from a nice place that 97% of the people could get to, to a plain, maybe undesirable place that everyone can access...but do they want to.

The battles that are truly won are those where "they" really do "understand".

For this I commend the episode of "Glee" last night. All members of the glee club and the cheerleading squad were asked to spend 3 hours a day in a wheelchair.

It led the kids away from the extremes of ignorance and pity, to what should be the goal of all of our human interactions - patient understanding.